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T-Mobile G2x from LG hands-on (video)
We reported the rumors, we spied it on the show floor at CTIA yesterday, and T-Mobile finally announced it this morning. Well here it is now in the flesh: the G2x from LG. The hardware looks pretty much identical to its sibling, the LG Optimus 2X that we reviewed recently, but instead of featuring a custom UI, the software is plain Froyo (Android 2.2.2). Another major difference is the inclusion of "4G" support, which is missing from the Optimus 2X. Tegra Zone comes pre-installed, along with the usual T-Mobile add-ons like WiFi calling. Overall, the G2x made a very strong first impression, and we're looking forward to getting more in-depth coverage soon. Take a look at our gallery below, and hit the break for our hands-on video. Update: It turns out the "4G" radio in the G2x is quadband (2100 / 1900 / 1700 / 850MHz) but strangely, it's limited to 14.4Mbps downlink speeds. Apparently, this also applies to the T-Mobile G-Slate. We're reaching out to T-Mobile to check if the G2x radio is HSPA+ or merely just HSPA.
T-Mobile G-Slate and G2x dual-core smartphone coming on April 20th?
LG, you big tease! T-Mobile must be feeling a tinge of regret for hooking up with the Korean hardware manufacturer lately, as TmoNews reports both the G-Slate tablet and a new G2x smartphone (believed to be the US moniker for the Optimus 2X) won't be coming Stateside for at least another month. Neither will be exactly late, mind you, since both feature dual-core Tegra 2 chips and the G-Slate runs Google's freshest Honeycomb software, however a launch date of April 20th does put LG a step behind its direct competitors. Motorola has already rolled out its own Xoom and Atrix alternatives, while Samsung is making noise about its new Galaxy devices, which might well beat LG's wares to the market. Rumor is we'll get an official date out of T-Mobile at CTIA next week, so keep your eyes peeled for that one.
ASUS U36Jc review
At this point, it feels like almost every laptop under the sun is being described as "thin and light," but the thinnest and lightest with a standard voltage processor? Well, that's a new distinction, and ASUS claims its 13.3-inch U36Jc is just that. The .76-inch thick chassis tips the scales to just 3.7-pounds, but doesn't skimp on the horsepower or battery life to attain those trim dimensions like some other ultrathin systems out there. Sure, the U36Jc may ditch the optical drive, but it packs a Core i5-460M processor (the "older" Nehalem generation), NVIDIA GeForce 310M graphics, 4GB of RAM, a USB 3.0 port, and a 500GB, 7200rpm hard drive for just $969. Okay, so it doesn't have Intel's latest Sandy Bridge processors, but there are plenty of other reasons we think those who are looking for an ultraportable for under a grand may want to consider the U36Jc. Hit the break to find out what those things are exactly in our full review. %Gallery-118356%
LG Optimus Pad listed on Amazon.de for a slightly less crazy €899
Shortly after our first hands-on encounter with LG's Optimus Pad, we came across a press release from the company announcing the price for its 8.9-inch Android Honeycomb tablet in Germany: €999 ($1,380). We rubbed our eyes and pinched our cheeks, but we weren't dreaming -- that's LG's recommended retail price, alright. Now Amazon has listed its pre-order page for the same slinky slate, though it's sagely opted to chop €100 off and offer it up at €899. We still don't know who exactly will be jumping at this opportunity, even with 32GB of onboard storage, a dual-core CPU and a dual-camera array on the back allowing for 3D video recording, when equally or more compelling products are about to hit the market at lower price points. At least shipping's free. Update: And just like that, Amazon's listing is gone. Did we just alert them to LG's RRP or something?
LG Optimus 2X coming to Europe in March, a little later than planned
European dual-core aficionados were promised their fix way back in January from LG, however the Korean company's delivery schedule evidently slipped a tiny bit as we're today bidding adieu to the month of February. Good news is that LG will definitely, totally, honestly be releasing its Optimus 2X in "key European markets" this March. It'll ship with Froyo on board, however a Gingerbread update is expressly promised, which should allay fears of being left with a very powerful but outdated piece of hardware. Last time we looked, Amazon's German branch had priced this handset, to be known as the Optimus Speed in Deutschland, at just under €500, which sounds about right for its eventual unlocked price.
NVIDIA debuts new slew of Quadro mobile GPUs, each sporting Optimus for battery life too
It seems only yesterday we were imagining ourselves building virtual worlds on the fly with NVIDIA's latest Fermi-based Quadro, and here comes an even faster chip to make that vision all the more enticing. NVIDIA's Quadro 5010M shares the same 100W thermal profile as its predecessor, but adds more bang for the watt, with 384 CUDA cores (up from 320) and a full 4GB of GDDR5 memory dedicated to rendering what dreams might come. You'll also NVIDIA's Optimus tech to automatically turn off as much of that battery-draining silicon as possible when not in use, though we imagine that most mobile workstations will still find themselves chained to a plug. No word on per-unit pricing as of yet, but the 5010M proves too rich for your blood, perhaps the 4000M, 3000M, 2000M and 1000M detailed in the press release below will prove useful for your graphical niche.
Motorola Xoom vs. Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 vs. LG G-Slate -- battle of the Tegra 2 Honeycomb tablets
Hello, Moto -- no wait, Samsung... or is it LG? Three of the world's biggest smartphone makers have leapt at the opportunity to serve up Google's brand new Honeycomb build of Android, however their selection of menu items looks to be somewhat lacking in diversity. Motorola's Xoom matches Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 in both screen size and resolution (1280 x 800), while LG's Optimus Pad / G-Slate offers only marginally smaller measurements with an 8.9-inch display spanning 1280 x 768. More than that, all three tablets run the bone-stock Honeycomb UI and are built around NVIDIA's 1GHz Tegra 2 system-on-chip, leaving little room for differentiation on the basis of user experience or internal performance (LG would have you believe its 3D camcorder is a big advantage for its slate, but we're not so sure). Most choices between the three, then, will come to things like brand loyalty, ergonomics and pure, basic aesthetic appeal. To help you judge the latter of those three points, we've prepared an exhaustive barrage of side-by-side photos below -- we expect you to view every last one of 'em... at least twice. %Gallery-116882% %Gallery-116881% %Gallery-116879%
LG Optimus 3D hands-on
Glory be the LG Optimus 3D. Okay, we'll get right to it: the Optimus 3D is kinda kitschy, but at the same time fun, inevitable on a mobile device, and still a great conversation piece. The 4.3-inch glasses-free 3D display's effect in games, film, and even the UI is pretty convincing using the set's applied parallax barrier technology, which is otherwise unnoticeable while the effect is off. Best bit? You can film your own 3D videos using the dual cameras on the back then watch them on your 3D set via HDMI. The Optimus is by no means a tiny set, though, still pretty comfy when held. Material choices are top notch -- as we'd expect hope for in a high end device -- and as you'll see in the vid, it is plenty fast with no lag getting in the way of the little demo we had. So why not take a few minutes to admire the pics and videos (which unfortunately will be very flat for your eyes) won't you? %Gallery-116521%
LG Optimus Pad first hands-on! (video)
We've just gotten back from playing around with LG's 8.9-inch, 3D-friendly Optimus Pad (known as the G-Slate in the US). This Android Honeycomb tablets sports a dual-core CPU inside and a dual-camera array outside, giving you both the optical and processing capabilities to produce 3D video. Its screen cannot actually play back glasses-free 3D, but if you really have to have that third dimension on the move, you'll be able to buy a set of glasses to recreate the effect. The Optimus Pad is slim, though we couldn't get a great feel for its ergonomics with all the wiring attached to it, has nicely curved corners, a matte black back cover that's pleasant to the touch and seemingly durable, and an extremely glossy screen up front. We likened the Pad to the Optimus 2X in an earlier post and it carries over a lot of industrial design elements from its smartphone sibling, including the metallic strip down the middle of its rear branded with a "with Google" logo. That's actually meaningful this time -- the Optimus 2X wasn't a stock Android installation, it was subjected to LG's (not entirely successful tweaks), however the Pad looks to be a straight Google Experience Device, in much the same vein as the Motorola Xoom and Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, its nearest and most direct competitors. That being said, the code on the device we handled still wasn't up to scratch on the software front, as evidenced by us managing to crash both the browser and Google Maps within a few minutes of putting down our first fingerprints on the tablet. The 3D camcorder also seems like a memory hog, we weren't able to get it started up initially because of the number of apps that were already open (which at the time was no more than four). Let's remain optimistic, though, this wasn't exactly a slate we snatched off a retail shelf and LG has time to optimize and spruce things up before shipping this thing out. We've got pictures for you below and a press release after the break. Video is incoming at the very fastest speed our wireless connection can carry it. Update: Video is now in, get to the ogling! %Gallery-116522%
LG Optimus 3D has dual-core 1GHz OMAP 4 CPU, video codecs up the wazoo
LG's been mighty stingy with details about its 3D smartphone, but some very promising ones have just trickled out of Barcelona ahead of Mobile World Congress -- in keeping with the company's theme of doubling everything, the LG Optimus 3D will ship with a dual-core 1GHz TI OMAP 4 chip. Considering that we've seen that particular SOC drive three screens, we're guessing that a single 4.3-inch stereo display (yes, 4.3-inch is confirmed) will be old hat, and we've certainly seen the included PowerVR SGX540 graphics throw around some weight in many a Galaxy S. Raw specs aside, though, the Optimus 3D has a feature that we've been waiting on in Android for a while: LG says it will have "four times more video decoders than competing designs." Admittedly, that probably means it will still only recognize about eight video formats in total, but as long as we can play the vast majority of our anime music video library without re-encoding the lot, we'll promise to only grumble occasionally. Deal? PR after the break. %Gallery-116393%
LG Optimus 2X review
The world cried out for a dual-core smartphone and LG and NVIDIA answered the call. Actually, the world only ever dreamt about multicore mobile architectures up until late last year, but sometimes that's all it takes to get those zany engineers engineering. So here we are, in early February 2011, beholding the world's first smartphone built around a dual-core processor, the Optimus 2X. This is a landmark handset in more ways than one, however, as its presence on the market signals LG's first sincere foray into the Android high end. Although the company delivered two thoroughly competent devices for the platform with the Optimus S and T in 2010, they were the very definition of mid-range smartphones and the truth is that Samsung, HTC and Motorola were left to fight among themselves for the most demanding Android users' hard-earned rubles. So now that LG's joined their ranks, was the wait worth it? %Gallery-115835%
HTC Desire 2, Flyer, Pyramid and LG Optimus 3D, Star Tab surface in Vodafone Germany inventory system
There are leaks, and then there are leaks. As you can probably glean from the headline, this is most certainly a case of the latter. FoneArena has received shots of what appears to be a Vodafone Germany inventory system, and it's a system currently overflowing with both rumored and heretofore unheard of product names. HTC's Flyer and Pyramid are all but confirmed for a MWC unveiling, while the Desire 2 is popping up on our radar for the first time. We've also been told that LG's Optimus 3D will be fully revealed next week in Barcelona, but the Star Tab? Now that's a new one. Of course, it shouldn't come as any surprise to see a swath of new names pop up just days before the year's most gargantuan mobile show, but it definitely brings about a metric ton of questions. Is the Star Tab a phone? A slate? A unicorn-based gaming console? Will the Desire 2 simply be more desirable than the original, or will it utilize one of those new screen technologies HTC is feverishly working on? Hard to say from a simple list of names, but you can bet we'll be keeping an ear to the ground for more as Mobile World Congress approaches. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc vs. LG Optimus 2X... fight!
Android is our future, the stat mavens all agree, but for all its rapid growth, Google's OS still suffers from a shortage of top tier differentiation. This has in part been down to LG and Sony -- two of the world's biggest phone makers -- spending the majority of 2010 watching the battle for Android supremacy from the sidelines (the X10 disqualified itself when it announced it neither knew nor cared what Froyo was). 2011 might just be the year of redemption for both, however, as LG will soon assault the European market with a pair of truly desirable and powerful Android smartphones in the Optimus 2X and Black, while Sony Ericsson's well leaked portfolio of new Xperias includes the Arc, Neo and Play, each one of them coming with Gingerbread preloaded. We've wrapped our mitts around a pair of these high-hope devices, one from each manufacturer, and photographed the living daylights out of them sat side by side. %Gallery-115722% We humbly submit that the Xperia Arc looks and feels far more refined than LG's admittedly well designed Optimus 2X. The Arc's curvature seriously makes it feel like the thinnest phone we've ever handled and its weight is also dramatically, unreasonably minimal. Another note of import is that the 2X comes with a 4-inch screen whereas the Arc offers a more generous 4.2-inch display, yet their overall dimensions are nearly identical. All in all, we'd hardly object to having either one in our pockets, but the Arc wins it for us in terms of aesthetic appeal. Of course, the Optimus 2X has a dual-core Tegra 2 heart beating within, it's not all about looks, though in the case of this hands-on comparison, it kind of was. We'll have a full review of LG's handset in the coming days, while Sony Ericsson promises the Xperia Arc will land in Europe by the end of March. You can see more of the prototype unit we got to handle in the gallery below and there's a video comparison of the two Android newcomers after the break as well. %Gallery-115723%
LG Optimus Pad (aka G-Slate) coming to MWC 2011 with Honeycomb, Tegra 2 and 3D display
The T-Mobile G-Slate may be fully official now, but the rest of the world needs love too, and LG's just announced it intends to deliver said loving at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona a few days from now. The Optimus Pad, as this 8.9-inch tablet will be known outside the US, will offer Android Honeycomb as its OS, along with a 3D-capable 1280 x 768 display, dual-core Tegra 2 processor, a front-facing camera plus a pair of imagers on the back allowing for 3D picture-taking, 32GB of onboard storage, and a 6,400mAh battery. We should be getting to grips with the device at MWC in due course -- look for it to launch alongside or shortly after its US twin hits retail in March.
LG Optimus V is seriously, officially official for Virgin Mobile at $150
It was apparently on sale in some locations if you looked hard enough last week, but the latest rendition of LG's ubiquitous Optimus series of midrange Android phones -- the Optimus V -- is now totally official for Virgin Mobile USA. Though it's basically a dead ringer for the Optimus S sold by parent company Sprint, Virgin has naturally red-ified the UI... and it has also inexplicably changed the order of the physical buttons, continuing Android's proud, longstanding tradition of hitting end users with every possible permutation of button order under the sun. It's available immediately online and from Radio Shack for $149.99 off-contract with other retailers picking up stock throughout the month. Follow the break for the full press release.
LG confirms Optimus 3D for MWC 2011: glasses-free screen and 3D camera
We've had a feeling that LG was going to tackle 3D smartphones heads-on sometime in February, and after a spat of rumors today purported to be showing off the Optimus 3D (rumored to be the device above, via Phandroid), the company's flat-out confirmed its Mobile World Congress debut. The Optimus 3D sports a dual-lens 3D camera, a glasses-free LCD display, and HDMI / DLNA for sharing on whatever 3D sets you have. A live demo will be at Barcelona, but whether that means we'll get to hold it in our own hands. Other specs? We'll have to wait and find out. Press release after the break.
LG Optimus 2X and Optimus Black priced at €499 by Amazon Germany, not yet available to buy
Amazon's German outlet has started listing LG's two latest and undoubtedly greatest phones: the Optimus 2X (seemingly renamed the Optimus Speed here) and the Optimus Black. Both run Android 2.2 on 4-inch screens, with the former offering a dual-core Tegra 2 processor capable of 1080p video recording and HDMI output, and the latter cranking up the display brightness to a quite unreasonable 700 nits. The Optimus Black also has one of the thinnest profiles on a smartphone of its class at 9.2mm, and will be one of the first phones to offer WiFi Direct connectivity. Intriguingly, Amazon's Optimus Speed / 2X listing also shows a brown color option for the handset, though only its black SKU is subject to a neat €50 discount bringing its price to €499, the same as the cost of the Optimus Black. We don't know when either one will drop, but you can go and reserve yourself one (or a dozen) at the links below. [Thanks, Julian]
LG prepping Optimus 3D for February announcement?
Talk of 3D features in LG's upcoming G-Slate are becoming less and less implausible-sounding by the day, capped off this week with a couple of doozies: first off, Carphone Warehouse's Dutch outpost -- called simply The Phone House there -- briefly posted a teaser for an upcoming "Optimus 3D" Android smartphone, though the page has since been removed. Secondly, the world's tech media (us included) just received an invite to LG's shindig at Mobile World Congress next month where it teases a new Optimus model that takes us "into the new dimension." Pretty strong foreshadowing there, wouldn't you say? This should all work itself out in the next couple weeks -- but we're warning you right now, LG: if any of this stuff isn't glasses-free, we're expecting you to buy us all Guccis (fortunately, odds are good they're using that 4.3-inch glasses-free unit demoed at CES this month).
Art Lebedev's Optimus Popularis delayed, but new Optimus Mini Six is on the way
We've always taken Art Lebedev's product launch forecasts with a grain handful of salt, so this doesn't come as a surprise: the firm's sub-$1,000 OLED keyboard won't be out anytime soon. However, the second thing the indie peripheral design house revealed today makes us giddy despite our misgivings -- before the full-sized Optimus Popularis comes to market, it's planning to release a new miniature keypad like the Optimus mini three (pictured above) but with six keys inside. Still... is it bad if all we really want is an Optimus Aux prototype?
LG: Windows Phone 7 launch did not meet expectations, still a fine OS for 'a huge segment'
The only hard news we've seen from Microsoft regarding Windows Phone 7 sales was less than revealing, but it seems that LG is stepping out from the behind the curtain a bit to let us in on how things are going -- from its perspective, anyway. In a sit-down with the folks over at Pocket-lint, LG's marketing strategy and planning team director James Choi noted: "From an industry perspective we had a high expectation, but from a consumer point of view the visibility is less than we expected." Nothing too shocking there, but he followed up by noting that LG feels Windows Phone 7 "is absolutely perfect for a huge segment out there." Perhaps more shocking was this tidbit: "What we feel is that some people believe that some operating systems, mainly Google, are extremely complicated for them; but Windows Phone 7 is very intuitive and easy to use." He followed his not-terribly-subtle Android jab with a WP7 jab, oddly enough, noting that "for tech guys, [WP7] might be a little bit boring after a week or two, but there are certain segments that it really appeals to." What's left unclear is exactly how much support LG is going to give Microsoft after launching the Optimus 7, but we're guessing that next month's outlay at Mobile World Congress will be a huge indication. Naturally, we'll be there with our eyes peeled.